FERRSE,  BARR 
William  Uhler  Hensel 


CT 
275 
H585 
F4 


WILLIAM  UHLER  HENSEL/ 

AN  APPRECIATION 
BY  BARR   FERREE 
DIRECTOR  OF  THE 
PENNSYLVANIA  SOCIETY 
PREPARED  FOR  THE 
ANNUAL  MEETING 
APRIL  20,  1915 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA  SOCIETY 

249  WEST  13th  STREET 

NEW  YORK  CITY 

K  ft 


^  WILLIAM  UHLER  HENSEL 

The  leading  events  in  the  life  of 
William  Uhler  Hensel  may  be  quickly 
outlined.  He  was  born  at  Quarryville, 
Lancaster  County,  December  4,  1851. 
He  was  the  son  of  George  Washington 
and  Anna  Maria  Uhler  Hensel.  He  was 
graduated  from  Franklin  and  Marshall 
College  in  1870,  receiving  his  master's 
degree  in  1873.  On  October  13,  1875,  he 
married  Miss  Emily  Flinn.  His  profes- 
sion was  the  law.  He  was  Attorney- 
General  of  Pennsylvania  from  1891  to 
1895.  He  received  the  honorary  degree 
of  LL.D.  from  Dickinson  College  in 
1909  and  from  Washington  and  Lee 
University  in  1910.  Franklin  and  Mar- 
shall made  him  a  Litt.D.  in  1912.  For 
some  years  he  was  Vice-President  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  Franklin  and  Mar- 
shall College,  becoming  President  of  the 
Board  in  1914.  He  was  President  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Henry  G.  Long 
Asylum.  These  are  the  chief  dates  in  his 
life  as  recorded  by  himself  for  The  Penn- 
sylvania Society.  To  complete  the  rec- 


ord  his  death  at  Savannah,  Georgia,  on 
February  27,  1915,  should  be  added. 

A  meagre  outline  of  a  great  career, 
with  little  to  shadow  forth  the  distin- 
guished life  with  which  it  is  concerned. 
To  those  who  knew  Dr.  Hensel  only  in 
the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years  the  details  of 
his  earlier  life  contain  many  elements  of 
surprise.  Scarcely  had  he  completed  his 
college  course  than  he  embarked  in  an 
aggressive  political  career  that  lasted 
many  years,  appearing  on  the  stump 
before  he  had  attained  voting  age.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  Bar  January  23, 
1873.  In  the  following  year  he  purchased 
a  half  interest  in  the  Lancaster  Intelli- 
gencer, and  became  one  of  its  editors  and 
proprietors.  Thus  at  the  beginning  he 
chose  to  follow  three  great  interests,  poli- 
tics, journalism  and  the  law,  any  one  of 
which  was  more  than  sufficient  to  demand 
the  undivided  attention  of  an  ordinary 
man.  That  he  should  have  triumphed  in 
each  of  these  callings  is  splendid  testi- 
mony to  his  great  mental  attainments. 

Dr.  Hensel  long  since  renounced  jour- 
nalism, yet  his  editorial  work  was  of  en- 


grossing  interest  to  him.  In  1880  his 
joint  professions  of  lawyer  and  editor  em- 
broiled him  in  serious  trouble.  For  criti- 
cism of  a  case  before  the  Lancaster  courts 
he  and  his  partner  were  disbarred;  both 
were  subsequently  restored  to  their  full 
rights  on  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  Dr.  Hensel  took  natural  pride  in 
being  instrumental  in  holding  the  free- 
dom of  the  press  in  a  case  in  which  he  was 
the  chief  actor.  So  widely  was  his  work 
as  a  journalist  appreciated  that  in  1882 
and  1883  he  was  chosen  President  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Editorial  Association.  In 
1886  he  disposed  of  his  newspaper  inter- 
est, and  in  the  following  year  formed  a 
law  partnership  with  J.  Hay  Brown,  now 
Chief  Justice  of  Pennsylvania. 

Dr.  Hensel's  editorial  work  was  a  vig- 
orous aid  to  his  political  activities.  He 
was  chairman  of  the  Democratic  County 
Committee  from  1875  to  1887,  save  for 
two  years  when  he  was  State  Chairman. 
He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Democratic 
National  Conventions  of  1880, 1884,  1888, 
and  1892,  making  one  of  the  nominating 
speeches  for  Grover  Cleveland  at  the  last- 


named.  Throughout  this  long  term  of 
years  he  has  not  only  made  many  politi- 
cal speeches,  but  he  did  much  political 
writing  of  a  high  order  of  interest  and  of 
unusual  value  to  his  party.  He  was  a 
Democratic  State  Chairman  in  the  Patti- 
son  campaign  of  1882,  and  was  unques- 
tionably largely  influential  in  the  success 
his  candidate  then  achieved.  But  it  was 
not  until  the  second  Pattison  campaign 
that  he  felt  at  liberty  to  accept  office  as 
the  Attorney-General  of  Pennsylvania,  an 
honour  rightly  due  him,  not  as  a  crown  for 
his  political  career,  but  as  a  just  recogni- 
tion of  his  great  abilities  as  a  lawyer  by  a 
party  to  which  he  had  given  so  much  of 
his  energy  and  his  genius. 

To  those  familiar  with  Dr.  Hensel's 
life,  his  political  activities  and  his  tenure 
of  the  great  office  of  Attorney-General  of 
Pennsylvania  bulk  large  in  any  estimate 
formed  of  him.  Yet  as  he  had  closed  his 
editorial  career  in  1886,  so  the  chapter  of 
his  political  activities  came  to  an  end  in 
1906,  when  his  party  became  identified 
with  now  forgotten  silver  heresy. 

Yet  while  all  this  prodigious  activity  in 


lines  outside  his  profession  was  being  de- 
veloped, Dr.  Hensel  had  by  no  means 
subordinated  his  interest  in  the  law.  This, 
indeed,  we  may  well  believe  always  to 
have  been  first,  otherwise  his  distinguished 
attainments  in  this  most  difficult  of  pro- 
fessions would  have  been  unobtainable. 
His  partnership  continued  to  1899,  when 
Mr.  Brown  became  a  Justice  of  the  Su- 
preme Court.  It  was  a  remarkable  part- 
nership in  many  ways,  for  Mr.  Brown  was 
as  pronounced  a  Republican  as  Dr.  Hensel 
was  a  Democrat.  The  new  firm  quickly 
rose  to  prominence,  and  Dr.  Hensel's 
career  at  the  Bar  became  a  long  series  of 
personal  triumphs. 

One  not  a  lawyer  cannot  adequately  dis- 
cuss this  most  important  side  of  Dr.  Hen- 
sel's life;  but  the  vast  multitude  of  cases 
that  came  to  him;  the  importance  of  the 
corporations  and  clients  that  sought  his 
services;  the  honours  his  professional 
brethren  gladly  gave  him,  both  within  and 
without  the  legal  associations,  speak  with 
no  uncertain  voice.  Here,  at  last,  was  the 
real  Hensel,  resourceful,  alert,  learned, 
rapid  in  thought  and  in  action,  keen  in 


research,  swift  in  application,  bold  in  ex- 
pediencies, polished  in  thought  and  in  dic- 
tion, endowed  with  a  natural  eloquence 
that  long  practice  had  brought  to  a  rich 
fruition. 

And  it  is  in  the  real  Hensel  that  the 
great  interest  lies;  not  in  the  journalist, 
not  in  the  politician,  not  in  the  lawyer,  but 
in  the  man  himself;  in  that  richly  dowered 
mind,  supersaturated  with  knowledge, 
overrunning  with  learning,  keenly  alive 
to  life  and  all  that  it  means;  a  man  not 
only  in  touch  with  many  forms  of  activ- 
ity, but  actually  dominating  them;  a  man 
who,  time  and  again,  brought  forth  the 
quiet  learning  of  the  library  and  set  it 
out  in  the  broad  light  of  life;  a  man  of 
kindly  feeling  and  warm  friendships,  and 
of  amazing  sociability,  whose  impromptu 
entertainments,  often  arranged  on  a  most 
astonishing  scale,  were  a  constant  delight 
to  those  who  participated  in  them. 

I  have  indicated  how  Dr.  Hensel's  in- 
terests were  developed  on  the  three  lines 
of  journalism,  politics  and  the  law;  but 
there  was  still  another  form  of  activity 
that  was  very  dear  to  him,  and  which  per- 


haps  yielded  him  more  joy  than  anything 
else,  and  this  was  his  studentship.  Dr. 
Hensel  was  a  profound  student  and 
scholar,  words  ofttimes  lightly  used,  but 
in  his  case  most  accurately  applied.  His 
favourite  study  was  his  own  county,  in 
which  he  was  born,  and  in  which  his  whole 
life  was  passed.  He  was  the  personifica- 
tion of  Lancaster  County,  deeply  versed 
in  its  history,  profoundly  interested  in  its 
people,  its  greatest  living  exponent.  His 
voice,  his  time,  his  mind  were  always  at 
its  service,  his  knowledge  of  Lancaster 
County  history  and  Lancaster  County  af- 
fairs was  so  intimate  as  to  well  warrant 
being  called  complete.  And  the  harvest 
he  gathered  was  rich.  Lancaster  County 
is  alive  with  history  and  Dr.  Hensel  found 
many  points  of  interest  to  absorb  his  at- 
tention. His  studies  ripened  into  many 
pamphlets,  dealing  with  the  most  widely 
different  topics:  biography,  politics,  his- 
tory, topography,  art  criticism,  belles 
lettres;  pamphlets  that  followed  each 
other  in  rapid  succession,  more  particu- 
larly in  the  later  years  of  his  life ;  splendid 
contributions  to  local  history,  local  biog- 


raphy,  local  events,  and  many  of  a  wider 
interest  than  afforded  by  the  abundant 
themes  of  Lancaster  County.  Any  half 
dozen  of  these  careful  studies  would  have 
sufficed  to  have  given  him  standing  as  an 
historian  of  the  first  rank ;  yet  Dr.  Hensel 
left  no  book  that  may  serve  as  a  climax 
to  his  years  of  study  and  his  life-time  of 
accomplishment. 

And  now  this  voice  is  stilled.  The  or- 
ator that  moved  so  many  minds  is  silent; 
the  pen  that  wrote  so  admirably  on  so 
many  subjects  has  been  laid  aside  forever; 
the  great  lawyer  has  pleaded  his  last  case. 
Lancaster  has  lost  her  foremost  citizen, 
and  a  shining  light  has  been  extinguished 
in  Pennsylvania.  Hensel  is  dead.  Penn- 
sylvania is  bereaved;  and  her  sons,  stand- 
ing by  his  bier-side,  may  well  regard  their 
loss  as  irreparable. 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


FACILITY 


108     5 


